Lebanon – A Lebanese official said that President Michel Aoun and Syrian President Bashar al -Assad discussed today, Saturday, the demarcation of the joint maritime borders between their two countries, before a visit by a Lebanese delegation charged with negotiating the matter to Damascus in the coming days.
The two nations’ shared maritime borders came into contention last year after Syria authorised a Russian energy company to begin maritime excavations in a region Lebanon claims is its own. In the eastern Mediterranean, a number of gas finds were made.
Aoun had stated that the demarcation of these borders will follow Lebanon’s agreement on its southern naval border with Israel, its longtime foe, after the issue had been raised inadvertently for years.
After the discussions on Saturday, Aoun informed Assad that Lebanon is eager to begin talks with Syria to define the northern maritime borders.
The official stated that Aoun commissioned Elias Bou Saab, Vice -President of the House of Representatives, who negotiated on behalf of Lebanon in the indirect talks regarding the borders with Israel, headed by a delegation that goes to Damascus in the coming days to start discussions.
The representative further stated that the group would include Abbas Ibrahim, the director general of public security, as well as the foreign and transportation ministers of Lebanon.
The specifics of the delineation have not yet been agreed, according to Syrian Sham FM Radio, and Assad has suggested direct discussions through the two foreign ministries of the two nations.
Last year, the two presidents talked about how borders are drawn.
On October 31, Aoun’s term as president of Lebanon, which is going through a severe political and economic crisis, comes to an end. Throughout its three sessions, the House of Representatives failed to defeat Aoun.
The agreement between Lebanon and Israel was supported by the Lebanese party’s ally, where the party leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech last week that “what matters to the party is to extract oil and gas from the Lebanese fields.
Observers think that Lebanon will have greater financial resources to recover from its economic crisis as a result of the maritime border demarcation deal with Israel.
A number of countries, including Qatar, expressed its willingness to join a consortium to explore for oil and gas in the 4 and 9 concession regions in the eastern Mediterranean to become the “third partner of Total and Eni”.
In elections last year that were decried as a fraud by both Syria and the West, Assad was given another seven-year term as president. The elections were held after the government regained control of large areas of the lands it lost to opposition fighters in the conflict that broke out in 2011.
As part of efforts to normalise relations, Assad met with a delegation from Hamas on Friday. He also wants to repair relations with a number of other Arab nations and the organisations who supported him.
The marine border demarcation issue is being discussed between Lebanon and Syria.
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